Disappointed Steve Clarke falls silent as Nathan Patterson snubs Scotland for Australian trip

When Steve Clarke announced the Scotland squad he mentioned how disappointed he was that there would be no Celtic players involved in the pointless friendly.

Ange Postecoglou had been quite up front about things, since it wasn’t a delegated FIFA date the players would be staying with their employers, in this case Celtic were heading to Australia to play two friendly matches.

The Celtic boss was honest and upfront, only those players going to the World Cup Finals would miss the Australian trip, the same message went to Sweden, Hungary, Israel and others.

Included in the squad for Turkey was fabled Ibrox starlet Nathan Patterson, the defender that Everton splashed out on last January with more appearances for Scotland that his club.

Patterson started for Everton in their 3-0 defeat at Bournemouth last Sunday then decided to pull out of the Turkey trip.

While Clarke turned to Ryan Fraser and Calvin Ramsey in the defeat from Turkey Patterson was on route to Australia for a week in the sun and two friendly matches.

The Scotland boss hasn’t commented on Patterson’s decision to put his club before country.